NEW YORK (SMI-WIRE,04.18-04.29.18)-The Serengeti Rules " it's a science new discovery film documentary directed by three time Emmy-Award winner Nicolas Brown on how nature works and the rules that govern it.

 

The film is based on the book " The Serengeti Rules " written by renowned American scientist Dr.  Sean B. Carrol;  and the findings of five scientists in how nature rules governs our ecosystem in the planet.

 

The film features five scientists, four Americans Dr. Bob Paine, Dr. Mary Power, Dr. John Terborgh, Dr. Jim Estes and Tony Sinclair from Zambia, Africa.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

Director Brown takes us into a colossal exhibition trip during the film, featuring a these pioneer scientists, who during the  60's embarked a journey into the wilderness and most remote locations from the Serengeti Park in Africa to the Amazon Jungle in Peru; and the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific tide pools around the world in search of how nature and the environment works.

We will not detail the documentary in full details in order for preserve the mystery of the story and give the audience the opportunity to see and judge for yourself.

 

After decades of research and similar findings, they all concluded the nature its govern by set of rules and the main component in every ecosystem in the earth depends in the " Keystone "that keep it together. From a single molecular to every ecosystems in the planet weather its Animal kingdom, Plantation and humanity need to preserve the keystone and follow the rules of nature in order to preserve our future existence in Earth. Every single scientist talks about their experiences and new ecosystem discoveries and  give us a better understanding how we should see life from these new findings and that every living organism in our planet plays a big role in our current and future existence.

 

A must see film for all audiences and we can also conclude that " The Serengeti Rules " is one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the century and hope it's considered for a noble prize medal. Also, we like to congratulate the scientists Dr. Bob Paine (USA), Dr. Mary Power (USA), Dr. John Terborgh(USA), Dr. Jim Estes(USA) and Tony Sinclair (Zambia, Africa)  for their great research and discovery, Dr. Sean B. Carrol for writing such a beautiful Book and Nicolas Brown for bringing this great story into the big screen……" Bravo "…!

​

Due to the significant of the film, we wanted to hear a little bit more from Nicolas Brown and his latest film " the Serengeti Rules " with at one to one interview:

 

Starlight Illustrated: Can you tell us about your latest film and how you came about making this film ?

 

Nicolas Brown: Serengeti Rules came about, its based on the book written by Sean B. Carrol and we took only certain aspect from the book which is to follow the lives of five ecologist who back in the 60's went out into nature and at that time ecology was almost not even considered a science, it was more like describe what its around six birds there and 10 trees there and these species. They were the generation of scientists who wanted to know more and how nature works.They spent a lifetime and now has come out with surprising and completely new theory how nature works that its only now they just been appreciated and its a very current new understanding how nature works everywhere. We are finding that works in these way everywhere we look. So a good example for your audience might be in Yellowstone national park when we re-introduce the Wolfs, suddenly streams weren't clear, fish return, cotton and aspen trees return, wales return, beavers return and the whole environment began to look very different. Very much like it would it looked long time ago and the questions in everybody minds was what does a Wolf has to do with clean running water or with cotton retreats. That's what this film is about, it teases out about and makes you understand how certain species can have an incredibly disproportionate impact on a given environment we call it " Keystone Species " and thats what the theory looks at it underwater, in the ocean, in a tide pools and in Calf forest and streams in Oklahoma and in Venezuela, Peru and Africa in the Serengeti. We now understand this new picture how nature works and has a huge implications how we are going to save species from extinctions and also how we are going to move forward with our human interactions with the natural world how we preserve what we preserve and ultimately what's is staying with us it's buying fear.

 

Starlight Illustrated: In the film it was mentioned numerous time  'The Serengeti Rules " How many rules are there ?

 

Nicolas Brown: be honest in the film and its easy to express it with as one rule, its possible that we could call the film " The Serengeti Rule " that just to simplify for everyone there are obviously many aspects that way nature works, the main concept to get across there are certain animals that are more important than others and the presents of which can hugely determine the outcome the amount of biodiversity of any given landscape.

Nature seems to existence state very low biodiversity and high biodiversity, the reason that makes it change from one to the other can offer be one single animal or species, a keystone species a present which can have a disproportional important effect and teasing that out in some cases are a snail,a blue crab, a lion and some cases are 100's Wildebeest. For example there is a Red Wolves free introduction program in the EastCoast in New York but the literatures are not showing that where you have Red Wolves, you do not have lyme disease and that's a huge impact that needs looking at because that will make a huge difference on people being able to let their kids running in the forest  free and to just to enjoy the outdoor without a fear of some sort of debility or disease coming form a thick. That's just a simple as accepting the Red Wolf  as your partner and to be honest , I met Red Wolves and you hear the word wolf and you think  Oh dangerous, it's not that all, they are very sweet animals and very shy.I'll be more afraid of a golfer than a Red Wolf to be honest. They are beautiful and I like that way they move and if you are EastCoaster, you have a take a look at the Red Wolf program, in north Carolina its program its under attack and its not been funded and supported, it needs people to support it and if you can have the red wolves back, you can get rid of  Lyme Disease  in your region. 

 

Starlight Illustrated: The research started in the 60's and do you know how long it took for the scientists to come out with this theory ?

 

Nicolas Brown: is build in consensus and people will publish papers and it's about data and very slow meticulous process.We covered the lives of five scientists and there were fifty, hundreds and many more working at the same period of time and we picked the one we felt were the real originating or originators of the big ideas. Bod Payne first experiment were in the early 60's and it wasn't till about 2010 when they came together and wrote the paper and in terms of science , all the heavy hitter and all the top scientists from all over the world, came and looked it over the paper  and sit down. This is very important and we can not ignore this, this is a very important hypothesis theory and how nature works. It might even be what the call it a unifying theory for ecology. They would not say that probably yet but because its a slow process but 60 years its a lifetime and thats how long it takes.

 

Starlight Illustrated: The film profiles five scientists, which four are Americans and one from Zambia Africa, any particular reason for that or are we (USA) more concern for the ecosystems of the planet or do we have more resources available for these type of research ? 

 

Nicolas Brown: will say that in the research, China its not well represented but China also has not a lot wildlife left. I worked a lot in china with Pandas  and thats changing rapidly and China its moving much faster than US in the right direction but they have a lot further to go.There were scientists in this group, who we could it included, scientists from Finland and from other parts of Europe, but we did choose a very American-centric and I think thats possibly because the original research  did originate with Bob Payne and group of people who thought  in certain way. We started with the pioneers and I think for the scientist particularly ecologist its kind of United Nations scientist and its very easy to find people who are studying these in Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, and Japan.

 

 

Starlight Illustrated: Book " The Serengeti Rules " was written by renowned American scientist Dr. Sean B. Carrol and Did He contribute in any way for the creation of this Film ?

 

Nicolas Brown: B. Carrol came to us  and said can you make this into a film ? and our initial answer was no and it looks too complicated. Then we looked over some aspect that we can possibly use, this film works very well with characters and not necessarily with just ideas but you has to have somebody to follow and going in a journey with and we looked at that aspect of the ecology. Sean is a very famous scientist in the field of ecologist molecular biologist, a heavy hitter in the field  and he understands science very well.

 

Starlight Illustrated:You are a three time Emmy-award winner, won couple BAFTA and numerous awards during your career, would you consider  " The Serengeti Rules " as one of your best work so far as a director and out of the five discoveries from the scientists; Do You have a preference or favorite one?

 

Nicolas Brown: me this is my first featured film, mostly I worked in television and all I wanted really to do it's direct.We all want to do that featured film  because it's kind of the cinema or the big screen and it's an experience to sit on a giant room with a giant image so for me it's a huge highlight in my career and like a real pinnacle for me. And also it was such a challenging, we all like to do things that test us and this tested me more than anything I can imagined.

 

For the second questions, Do I have a favorite, I was really amazed and taken by Jim Estes story,  particularly where the Orcas come and sort of a mind-blowing on series of events, where things 

happen back with whales in the 60's and suddenly totally changes the environment of the illusions in the 90's. The idea of nature can be connected across in space and in time in such amazing way and that it's more like a sad story so I equally kind a gravitate toward that The Serengeti was very positive story.

I guess the big message of the Serengeti which gets me all the time,  makes me emotional every time I think about it, if you give nature half a chance, it can comes back in such a amazing ways, like ways you can not even imagine, we humans don't have the imagination to really understand  how amazing nature can be if we only make room for it and have the tolerance to co-habit with other species

 

Starlight Illustrated: Thank You Mr. Brown for your time and allowing this interview. We wish you good luck with the film and future projects.